


Tiny Roommates

by HiddenDreamer67



Series: G/t Prompts [17]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), The Borrowers - All Media Types
Genre: Borrowers - Freeform, Cookies, Fluff, G/T, Giant/Tiny, Movie Night, Popcorn, borrower!logan, borrower!roman, movies - Freeform, tiny!logan, tiny!roman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 08:30:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenDreamer67/pseuds/HiddenDreamer67
Summary: Roman and Logan are borrowers in Patton & Virgil's home. Despite Logan's insistence they stay vigilant, the tiny people's existence isn't exactly a secret anymore.





	1. Practice Makes Perfect

“Alright, Roman.” Logan said quietly as he stood with his fellow borrower on top of the refrigerator, surveying the kitchen. The human bean, Patton, was sat at the kitchen table looking fully engrossed in a crossword puzzle. “Let’s say you needed to get some salt. What do you do?”

“I find Virgil and borrow some of his salty attitude.” Roman quipped, earning him a glare. 

“I meant table salt and you knew that I wasn’t speaking figuratively.” Logan lectured.

“Fine, fine.” Roman casually stretched his arms. “I’d hook down to the leftmost counter, using the back of the fridge as coverage. Then I’d scurry along the kitchen back splash-”

“Where are your emergency hiding spots?” Logan quizzed him. “It’s important to always have those at the forefront of your mind.”

“Yes, I know, professor precaution.” Roman rolled his eyes. “Knife block, cookbook, toaster.” He pointed to each of these in turn. “I was getting there, you just interrupted me!”

“Fine, continue.” Logan raised his hands palm-up as if to apologize for the interruption.

“Then it’s just a simple matter of unscrewing the top, gathering some grains, and screwing it back into place.” Roman gave a fake yawn, looking bored. “Can I just get on with it already?”

“Borrowing is not a game, Roman.” Logan scolded him. “You’re supposed to be taking this seriously.” 

“I am!” Roman insisted. He began to sneak towards the edge of the fridge, doing everything just as he described. With a flick of his wrist Roman gathered up his hook, ducking behind the knife block. Peering out to check if the coast was clear, Roman dashed across to the cookbook and then the toaster. Spotting the salt shaker, Roman grabbed the top with both hands. With a small grunt it began to untwist. Quickly Roman gathered up some salt and replaced the shaker so that it looked unchanged.

“Well done, Roman!” Roman’s head whipped around to see the human bean had his eyes locked on him; Patton was clapping his hands excitedly, looking proud. Roman gave him a large grin and bowed.

“Patton!” Logan called out irritably from up on the fridge, pinching the bridge of his nose. “He wasn’t done yet.”

“Oops, sorry.” Patton turned sheepishly back to his puzzle, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

“Well it’s too late now.” Logan sighed, pulling out his own hook to get down to the counter.

“Hey Padre, mind giving me a ride back then?” Roman said hopefully.

“What? No!” Logan protested as Patton began to stand. “The point of this was for Roman to do things on his own!”

“Well you don’t have to deal with everything alone.” Patton said with a smile. “That’s what we’re here for!”

“Regardless, a borrower must keep their skills sharp.” Logan argued. “And all this human contact has caused Roman to go soft.”

“I have not gone soft!” Roman protested. Feeling the familiar sensation of the ground shaking, Roman decided to prove it. He dove behind the toaster as cover when Virgil walked into the room, coffee mug in hand.

“Hey Pat, Lo.” Virgil greeted the two out in the open first, eyes flicking to the counter. “Nice try Princey.”

“Oh, come on!” Roman came back out into the open, pouting. Patton stifled a giggle.

“See? Soft.” Logan crossed his arms, looking smug.

“Well that’s just not fair.” Roman protested. “I mean, they already know we’re here. And they are our friends and want to keep us safe; of course they’d be looking for us. A normal human bean would never have seen me.”

“Eh.” Virgil looked unconvinced as he took a sip of his coffee. "You weren't subtle."

“You weren’t even there for the whole thing, emo nightmare.” Roman huffed, still pouting.

“Fine. Patton?” Virgil turned to his human roommate.

“Well…” Patton bit his lip. “You might want to be a little sneakier, kiddo…”

“Patton agrees with me, I win.” Virgil smirked.

“But what is the point?!” Roman said exasperatedly. “It’s like Patton said, we don’t have to do everything alone anymore.”

“Yes, but it keeps us from being entirely reliant on our human companions.” Logan explained. “And it is necessary for us to keep our borrowing tactics sharp for the future. After all, it’s not like we’re going to stay with them forever.”

Roman winced. An uncomfortable silence overtook them all, no one making eye contact. Patton looked down at his shoes, looking sad. Virgil took a long, loud slurp of coffee as if to fill the silence. Only Logan seemed unperturbed, looking confused at the sudden change in his associates’ behavior. 


	2. Let Me Help

“...how about you practice borrowing more later then?” Patton suggested softly. “In the meantime, let’s just…. Let’s have a movie night! That’ll be fun, right Logan?” 

“...yes?” Logan raised an eyebrow, not sure what was happening. Why was Patton asking him about having a movie night? Usually these events just happened, with Logan being practically dragged along.

“I’ll pick the movie!” Roman offered, raising his hand. “Virgil, to the living room.” He got ready to step onto Virgil’s hand, but it wasn’t offered to him.

“Meet you there, princey.” Virgil left, leaving behind an offended prince to make his own way to the living room. Logan moved to follow, but he was stopped by Patton’s voice.

“Hey, Logan?” Patton knelt down to be more at level with the counter. “Want to help me prep some snacks?” Logan looked down at himself, comparing their sizes.

“I’m not sure I’ll be of much assistance.” Logan admitted.

“Oh, sure you will.” Patton insisted. “Please?”

“Um, sure.” Logan watched as Roman fully left the room, leaving him alone with Patton. Logan had been alone with Patton before, of course, but unlike Roman the transition to come out in the open had not been so easy for Logan. Roman was younger, more naive; he accepted the human’s help easily. Logan still possessed a healthy fear of human beans.

“So, what should we do? Popcorn? Cookies?” Patton stood up a bit too quickly, causing Logan to flinch back. Patton took note of this and his smile dampened.

“My apologies.” Logan said, but Patton just shook his head.

“Oh no, I’m sorry Lo!” Patton insisted. “I just got too excited, is all. It’s not your fault.” He began pulling ingredients out for both kinds of snacks. Logan couldn’t help but think that Roman wouldn’t have flinched; he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. Patton continued working on the cookie batter, while Logan sat there looking contemplative. Patton put the cookies into the oven before getting the popcorn prepped.

“Well, I would like to apologize for earlier.” Logan said. “I think I may have upset everyone, although I’m not quite sure how.”

Patton froze for a moment, hand still in midair as he reached for the popcorn kernels. “Well, yeah.” Patton gave him a sad smile. “I think it’s just… hard for everybody to think about not being together. It’s sad, because we don’t want to lose our friends.” 

“But we can’t stay here forever.” Logan pointed out. “It’s not safe for borrowers to stay in one location for a long time.”

“Usually, maybe.” Patton nodded. “But you have to admit that this isn’t exactly your normal location.”   
  


“I would hate to be a burden on you, though.” Logan adjusted his glasses. “And while I know you’d both miss Roman terribly- “

“Now wait just a moment.” Patton interrupted, keeping his tone gentle yet stern. “Logan, you are not, nor will you ever be a burden. You are a  _ guest _ . We love having you both here and want you to feel welcome to stay as long as you like. But if you did chose to leave, we would miss you just as much as Roman. You’re our friend too, Lo.” A beep from the oven suddenly made Patton shift his attention temporarily elsewhere, focusing on getting the cookies out.

“...oh.” Logan found this declaration to be surprising. After all, Roman was always the fun one. And it was certainly hard to not feel like a burden when, just as predicted, Logan hadn’t contributed anything useful to this snack prepping process. He sighed, pulling out his hook.

“Here, let me help!” Patton was quick to offer his hand, despite the fact that he still had to carry a plate of cookies and a bowl of popcorn.

“No, it’s alright.” Logan shook his head. “It’s clear you’ve got your hands full.”

“It’s okay!” Patton pointed to his shoulder. “You can just sit here!”

“Oh you don’t have to do that-” Logan was cut off.

“But I want to.” Patton insisted with a little laugh. “Logan, you keep seeing yourself as this burden, but you don’t seem to realize that I  _ want  _ to help. It’s what friends do.”

“...alright.” Logan carefully climbed up onto Patton’s palm, still unused to these sensations. He waited until Patton put his hand up to his shoulder to climb off, clutching Patton’s cardigan tightly for balance. Patton gathered up the plate and bowl before moving into the living room.

“We’re back!” Patton announced with a smile. 

“Excellent!” Roman grinned, sitting on the coffee table. Patton carefully set the dishes down next to him, making sure to not upset Logan’s position. Next Patton put his hand up next to Logan, but Logan didn’t let go.

“Um…” Logan wasn’t sure what had overcome him, but he didn’t feel like leaving Patton’s presence. “Actually, would it be alright if I stayed here for the film?” Logan wasn’t fully able to see Patton’s face, but the others could see how Patton’s eyes lit up at Logan’s question.

“Of course, Logan!” Patton said happily.Then Patton sat back on the couch next to Virgil, who pressed play on the remote. Roman grabbed a popcorn kernel, already munching away. Logan leaned against Patton’s neck, settling in.


	3. Bad Feeding Habits

Patton paused in the middle of his sandwich, hearing the familiar footsteps on the counter behind him. He turned, spotting the borrower. Logan seemed to shift nervously under his gaze, but his eyes remained on Patton’s sandwich. Patton glanced between the borrower and the food. 

“Again?” Patton teased, ripping off a small chunk for Logan. It seemed every meal at least one of Patton’s borrower friends came out to get a bit of his food. The borrower’s eyes seemed to widen as it was held out to him, but Logan took a step back and shook his head.

“Ah, no.” Logan explained. “I...I actually came do discuss that with you.” 

“What’s up, Lo?” Patton said, popping the bite into his mouth. 

“It is essential that stop offering us sustenance.” Logan looked thoughtful for a moment. “Especially Roman.”

“...you want me to starve your brother?” Patton frowned. Roman was the one who came out the most often. Being the youngest of the borrowers, he was less scared around Patton, a fact the human greatly appreciated. 

Often Roman would join him on all sorts of baking adventures, helping decorate cupcakes and cookies and other sweets. Sometimes they would play Disney songs through Patton’s portable speaker while they waited for things to bake. Roman did the most adorable karaoke to Lion King. And of course, whenever Roman was feeling hungry, Patton was always more than happy to cook whatever Roman wanted. It gave him good practice for culinary school and helped the borrower experience more of the world. 

“Not starve him, per say, just cut him off.” Logan sighed, pushing his glasses further up his nose. “Roman has grown too attached to you and the idea of having a constant food source.”

“And...that’s a bad thing?” Patton guessed, tilting his head.

“Yes.” Logan affirmed. “Roman is young, he hasn’t had time to perfect our craft. At this rate he may never learn to become a proper borrower. Roman lacks the proper motivation to try in his lessons.” 

“Oh.” Patton thought about Logan’s words for a moment. His first instinct was to argue, insist that Roman didn’t need any training, but...over time, Patton had learned that was a very  _ human  _ response. Though Logan might be more comfortable around Patton now, he was still a very guarded individual. Logan took his borrower roots very seriously. 

Not to mention, even if Patton wanted to help his friends now, it wasn’t guaranteed that Patton could help them forever. The  _ last  _ thing Patton wanted was for Roman to get hurt in the future just because Patton made things too easy. It would be best if Roman did become a ‘real’ borrower...even if that meant Patton might not see him so much.

“Yeah, sure thing Logan.” Patton smiled down at the borrower. 

“Thank you.” Logan looked relieved at Patton’s response, as though he expected the human to refuse. “Your cooperation is appreciated.” 

Patton watched Logan disappear back through the hole in the wall. Slowly his smile fell, his gaze shifting to the rest of his sandwich still in his hand. Patton sighed, setting it down on a plate. He didn’t really feel hungry anymore. 

\------------------------

“Hey, Patton!” Roman greeted, swinging his leg up onto the table edge. “Whatcha got there?”

“Oh, um, just some cookies.” Patton answered.

“Ooh, yum!” Roman began to walk closer to the plate, but Patton tugged it further away. Roman paused, looking up at Patton after a moment. “You talked to Logan, didn’t you?”

Patton nodded sheepishly, causing Roman to groan.

“Come on!” Roman whined, coming even closer. “Can’t I just have one?”

“No, Roman.” Patton said sternly. “Logan was very clear, you’re supposed to be borrowing your food now.”

“Well…” Roman put his hand to his chin, a mischievous glint appearing in his eye. “In that case, there should be no problem if I just so happen to borrow a cookie from right under a human’s nose.”

“I don’t think that’s how this works…” Patton hummed, but he wasn’t so sure. Logan had never really told Patton the specifics of the borrowing rules. 

“Of course it counts, I just can’t be  _ seen  _ while borrowing food.” Roman made a dramatic gasp, pointing off to the side. “Oh my! Look over there, something very interesting that you should stare at for a while!”

“Okay, just don’t tell Logan.” Patton giggled, playing along and turning his head to the side to not look at the borrower. He heard a gentle pattering across the table, and soon felt a gentle tugging at the cooking in his hands. Patton let go, hearing Roman give a triumphant noise. Turning back, Patton smiled at the image of Roman trying to consume the cookie as large as himself. Surely just one cookie wouldn’t hurt, right?


End file.
